Right now is the ghost month in the traditional Chinese calendar. I never heard of it while living in Beijing, but here in the south, it is quite revered. The premise is that ghosts visit the earth during this period of time, and families leave out food for them to eat. Food such as fruit, crackers, and cakes. Families leave this food out on the sidewalk, usually on newspaper, and will burn candles beside the food. Additionally, steel barrels and small aluminum containers are used to burn things to send to the ghosts. Stores that specialize in temple goods (i.e. candles, figurines, etc.) will sell paper goods to burn, such as paper money, small paper houses, paper KFC (seriously), paper i-phones....
Coming home the other night, I rounded the corner and got a face full of ash from one such burning.
I took the photos from afar, trying not to be too disrespectful.
And while I have no such superstitions, my Chinese friends will be careful about being out after dark during the ghost month.
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